Pull over

I decide when you pull over, that’s what the lights are for. Don’t keep driving until we get to a spot where you’re more comfortable stopping. It’s not about where you’re more comfortable, it’s about where I’m more comfortable. I’m the one standing in the street with my back to traffic. I don’t have time to explain to you why I would like to be standing on the side of the brightly lit, five lane road with an extra wide bike lane near a main intersection at 1 am rather than in the dark employee parking lot behind a large food processing building. You’re not doing me, or anyone else a favor by pulling off the road. It’s 1 am. What’s occurring here is what we in the business like to refer to as “Lite Traffic.” If you had pulled over where I wanted you to, I wouldn’t have had to call the Oregon Department Of Transportation out here to set up cones and flaggers to safely direct traffic around us. We would have been just fine. I don’t drive around thinking, “Gee, this is a terrible spot to pull someone over, but I’m going to turn on my lights anyway and just pray that this person committing a violation in front of me is smart enough to know that they should just keep driving until they find a safe place to pull over.” I can guarantee, if the next time a cop tries to pull you over, you drive two blocks to a stop light, wait through the light, drive through the intersection, drive another block, and then pull into a parking lot, all while the cop’s overhead lights are on and he’s blasting his air-horn at you, it’s not going to end like it did tonight. PULL OVER!